BILL BILL OF ADVENTURE...

BILL OF ADVENTURE, com. law, contracts. A writing signed by a merchant, to testify that the goods shipped on board a certain vessel belong to another person who is to take the hazard, the subscriber signing only to oblige himself to account to him, for the proceeds.

BILL OP ATTAINDER, legislation, punishment. An act of the legislature by which one or more persons are declared to be attainted, and their property confiscated.

2. The Constitution of the United States declares that no state shall pass any bill of attainder.

3. During the revolutionary war, bills of attainder, and ox post facto acts of confiscation, were passed to a wide extent. The evils resulting from them, in times of more cool reflection, were discovered to have far outweighed any imagined good. Story on Const. §1367. Vide Attainder; Bill of Pains and Penalties.

BILL-BOOK, commerce, accounts. One in in which an account is kept of promissory notes, bills of exchange, and other bills payable or receivable: it ought to contain all that a man issues or receives. The book should show the date of the bill, the term it has to run before it becomes due, the names of all the parties to it, and the time of its becoming due, together with the amount for which it was given.

BILL OF CONFORITY. The name of a bill filed by an executor or administrator, who finds the affairs of the deceased so much involved that he cannot safely administer the estate, except under the direction of a court of chancery. This bill is filed against the creditors generally, for the purpose of having all their claims adjusted, and procuring a final decree settling the order of payment of the assets. 1 Story, Eq. Jur. 440.

BILL 0F COST, practice. A statement of the items which form the total amount of the costs of a suit or action. This is demandable as a matter of right before the payment of the costs.

BILL OF CREDIT. It is provided by the Constitution of the United States, art. 1, s. 10, that no state shall " emit bills of credit, or make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment or debts." Such bills of credit are declared to mean promissory notes or bills issued exclusively on the credit of the. state, and for the payment of which the faith of the state only is pledged. The prohibition, therefore, does not apply to the notes of a state bank, drawn on the credit of a particular fund set apart for the purpose. 2 M'Cord's R. 12; 2 Pet. R. 818; 11 Pet. R. 257. Bills of credit may be defined to be paper issued and intended to circulate through the community for its ordinary purposes, as money redeemable at a future day. 4 Pet. U. S. R. 410; 1 Kent, Com. 407 4 Dall. R. xxiii.; Story, Const. §§ 1362 to 1364 1 Scam. R. 87, 526.

2. This phrase is used in another sense among merchants it is a letter sent by an agent or other person to a merchant, desiring him to give credit to the bearer for goods or money. Com. Dig. Merchant, F 3; 5 Sm. & Marsh. 491; R. M. Charlt. 151; 4 Pike, R. 44; 3 Burr. Rep. 1667.

BILL OP DEBT, BILL OBLIGATORY, contracts. When a merchant by his writing acknowledges himself in debt to another, in a certain sum to be paid on a certain day and subscribes it at a day and place certain. It may be under seal or not. Com. Dig. Merchant, F 2.

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BILL OF GROSS ADVENTURE. A phrase used in French maritime law; it comprehends every instrument of writing which contains a contract of bottomry, respondentia, and every species of maritime loan. We have no word of similar import. Hall on Mar. Loans, 182, n. See Bottomry; Gross adventure; Respondentia.

BILL OF HEALTH; commercial law. A certificate, properly authenticated, that a certain ship or vessel therein named, comes from a place where no contagious distempers prevail, and that none of the crew at the time of her departure were infected with any such distemper.

2. It is generally found on board of ships coming from the Levant, or from the coast of Barbary, where the plague so frequently prevails. 1 Marsh. on Ins. 408. The bill of health is necessary whenever a ship sails from a suspected port; or when it is required at the port of destination. Holt's R. 167; 1 Bell's Com. 553, 5th ed.

3. In Scotland the name of bill of health, has been given to an application.made by an imprisoned debtor for relief under the Act of Sederunt. When the want of health of the prisoner requires it, the prisoner is indulged, under proper regulations, with such a degree of liberty as may be necessary to restore him. 2 Bell's Com. 549, 5th ed.

BILL OF INDICTMENT. A written accusation of one or more persons, of a crime or misdemeanor, lawfully presented to a grand jury, convoked, to consider whether there is sufficient evidence of the charge contained therein to put the accused on trial. It is returned to the court with an indorsement of true bill (q. v.) when the grand jury are satisfied that the accused ought to be tried; or ignoramus, when they are ignorant of any just cause to put the accused upon hi.% trial.

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BILLS OF MORTALITY. Accounts of births and deaths which have occurred in a certain district, during a definite space of time.

BILL OBLIGATORY. An instrument in common use and too well known to be misunderstood. It is a bond without condition, sometimes called a single bill, and differs in nothing from a promissory note, but the seal which is affixed to it. 2 Serg. & Rawle, 115. See Read's Pleaders' Assistant, 256, for a declaration setting forth such a bill. Also West's Symboleography, s. 100, 101, for the forms both with and without a penalty.

BILL OF PAINS AND PENALTIES. A special act of the legislature which inflicts a punishment, less than death, upon persons supposed to be guilty of high offences, Such as; treason and felony, without any conviction in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings. 2 Wood. Law Lect. 625. It differs from a bill of attainder in this, that the punishment inflicted by the latter is death.

2. The Constitution of the United States Provides that "no bill of attainder shall be passed." It has been judicially said by the supreme court of the United States, that " a bill of attainder may affect the life of an individual, or i-nay confiscate his property, or both." 6 Cranch, R. 138. in the sense of the constitution, then, it seems that bills of attainder include bills of pains and penalties. Story, Const. §1338. Vide Attainder; Bills of Attainder.

BILL OP PARCELS, merc. law. An account containing in detail the names of the items which compose a parcel or package of goods; it is usually transmitted with the goods to the purchaser, in order that if any mistake have been made, it may be corrected.

BILL OF PARTICULARS, practice. A detailed informal statement of a plaintiff is cause of action, or of the defendants's set-off.

2. In all actions in which the plaintiff declares generally, without specifying his cause of action, a judge upon application will order him to give the defendant a bill of the particulars, and in the meantime stay, proceedings. 3 John. R. 248. And when the defendant gives notice or pleads a set-off, he will be required to give a bill of the particulars of his set-off, on failure of which he will be precluded from giving any evidence in support of it at the trial. The object in both cases is to prevent surprise and procure a fair trial. 1 Phil. Ev. 152; 3 Stark Ev. 1055. The bill of particulars is an account of the items of the demand, and states in what manner they arose. Mete. & Perk. Dig. h. t. For forms, see Lee's Dict. of Pr., Particulars of demand.

BILL PENAL, contracts. A written obligation, by which a debtor acknowledges himself indebted in a certain sum, may one hundred dollars, and for the payment of the debt binds himself in a larger sum, say two hundred dollars. Bills penal do not frequently occur in modern practice; bonds, with conditions, have superseded them. Steph. on Pl. 265, note. See 2 Vent. 198. Bills-penal are sometimes called bills obligatory. Cro. Car. 515; 2 Vent. 106. But a bill obligatory is not necessarily a bill penal. Com. Dig. Obligations, D.

BILL OF PRIVILEGE, Eng. law. A process issued out of the court against an attorney, who is privileged from arrest, instead of process demanding bail. 3 Bl. Com. 289.

BILL OF PROOF. In the mayor's court, London, the claim made by a third person to the subject-matter in dispute between two others in a suit there, is called bill of Proof. It is somewhat similar to an intervention. (q. v.) 3 Chit. Com. Law, 633; 2 Chit. Pr. 492; 1 Marsh, R. 233.

BILL OF SUFFRANCE, Eng. law. The name of a license granted at the custom house to a merchant, authorizing him to trade from one English port to another without paying custom. Cunn. L. D.

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BILL OF SIGHT, English commercial law. When a merchant i's ignorant of the real quantities or qualities of any goods consigned to him, so that he is unable to make a perfect entry of them, he is required to acquaint the collector or comptroller of the circumstances and such officer is authorized, upon the importer or his agent making oath that he cannot, for want of full information, make a perfect entry, to receive an entry by bill of sight, for the packages, by the best description which can be given, and to grant a warrant that the same be landed and examined by the importer in presence of the officer; and within three days after the goods have been so landed, the importer is required to make a perfect entry. See stat. 3 & 4 Will. IV. c . 52, §24.

BILL, SINGLE, contracts. A writing by which one person or more, promises to another or others, to pay him or them a sum of money at a time therein specified, without any condition. It is usually under seal; and when so, it is sometimes, if not commonly, called a bill obligatory. (q. v.) 2 S. & R. 115.

2. It differs from a promissory note in this, that the latter is always payable to order; and from a bond, because that instrument has always a condition attached to it, on the performance of which it is satisfied. 5 Com. Dig. 194; 7 Com. 357.

BILL OF STORE, English commercial law. A license granted by custom house officers to merchants, to carry such stores and provisions as are necessary for a voyage, free of duty. See stat. 3 and 4 Will. IV., c. 5 2.

BILL, TRUE. A true bill is an indictment approved of by a grand jury. Vide Billa Vera; True Bill.

BILLS PAYABLE, COMMERCE. Engagements which a merchant has entered into in writing, and which he is to pay on their becoming due. Pard. n. 85.

BILLS RECEIVABLE, Commerce. Promissory notes, bills of exchange, bonds, and other evidences or securities which a merchant or trader holds, and which are payable to him. Pard. n. 85.

BILLA VERA, practice. When the proceedings of the courts were recorded in Latin, and the grand jury found a bill of indictment to be supported by the evidence, they indorsed on it billa vera; now they indorse in plain English " a true bill."